Zen To Done (ZTD) is a system that is at once simple, and powerful, and will help you develop the habits that keep all of your tasks and projects organized, that keep your workday simple and structured, that keep your desk and email inbox clean and clear, and that keep you doing what you need to do, without distractions. This book was written for those who want to get their lives organized and actually execute the things on their to-do list by changing existing habits.

The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life

"What is a minimalist life? It's one that is stripped of the unnecessary, to make room for that which gives you joy. It's a removal of clutter in all its forms, leaving you with peace and freedom and lightness. A minimalist values quality, not quantity, in all forms." So writes Leo Babauta, the creator of Zen Habits and author of The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life. A joy to read, this little book will help you clear out clutter, be content with less, and simplify your life - with tips on everything from creating a minimalist workspace to going paperless. In short, it will help you enjoy a simpler, happier life!

Zen Habits: Handbook for Life

The Zen Habits Handbook for Life is a compilation of Leo Babauta's best articles on living from a Zen Habits perspective. What will this book teach you to do? Basically the same things that Zen Habits aims for overall: how to simplify your life, how to live a happier life, how to be more productive with less stress, how to achieve your dreams. The book includes chapters on decluttering, single-tasking, eliminating nonessentials, planning your day, clearing your inbox, getting motivated, cultivating compassion, boosting self-confidence, living consciously, and much more!

The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential

With the countless distractions that come from every corner of a modern life, it's amazing that we're ever able to accomplish anything. The Power of Less demonstrates how to streamline your life by identifying the essential and eliminating the unnecessary - freeing you from everyday clutter and allowing you to focus on accomplishing the goals that can change your life for the better

The Effortless Life: A Concise Manual for Contentment, Mindfulness, and Flow

This book shares ways to make life less of a struggle, to help you find contentment in a world where little exists, to instill a bit of mindfulness in an age of distractions. If you’ve had problems with frustration, struggle, dstraction, anger, impatience, unhappiness, relationships, goals, work, being present… this book is for you.

The Essential Motivation Handbook

I've long wanted to put together a motivation book - I get emails and comments from readers every day in need of motivation to reach a goal, to stay focused, to exercise, to be productive, to just get up off their butts and do something. But I wanted to add something, add value greater than I already offer on Zen Habits. And so I turned to Eric Hamm of the Motivate Thyself blog, and found the perfect partner for this book. Eric writes about motivation all the time - it's the lifeblood of his blog, and what he lives every day.

Essential: Essays by the Minimalists

The best of the Minimalists! This book by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus collects the most relevant essays - some short, some long - from their popular website, TheMinimalists.com. This collection has been edited and organized to create an experience that's considerably different from reading individual selections online. From simple living, decluttering, and finances to passion, health, and relationships, Essential is for anyone who desires a more intentional life.

Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life, Second Edition

Minimalism is the thing that gets us past the things that clutter our lives so we can make room for life's most important things - which actually aren't things at all. At age 30, best friends Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus walked away from their six-figure corporate careers, jettisoned most of their material possessions, and started focusing on what's truly important.

The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living

Why have history's greatest minds - from George Washington to Frederick the Great to Ralph Waldo Emerson along with today's top performers, from Super Bowl-winning football coaches to CEOs and celebrities - embraced the wisdom of the ancient Stoics? Because they realize that the most valuable wisdom is timeless and that philosophy is for living a better life, not a classroom exercise. The Daily Stoic offers a daily devotional of Stoic insights and exercises, featuring all-new translations.

Simplicity: Essays

Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus - The Minimalists - left their six-figure careers, jettisoned many of their material possessions, and started focusing on life's most important aspects. And they never looked back.

Simplicity: Essays is The Minimalists' fifth book and second essay collection, a follow-up to their bestselling Minimalism: Essential Essays. In the two years since the authors quit their six-figure corporate jobs and embraced simpler lives, they have written more than 200 essays on the subject of simple living.

The Motivation Manifesto

The Motivation Manifesto is a pulsing, articulate, ferocious call to claim our personal power. World-renowned high performance trainer Brendon Burchard reveals that the main motive of humankind is the pursuit of greater Personal Freedom. We desire the grand liberties of choice - time freedom, emotional freedom, social freedom, financial freedom, spiritual freedom.

The More of Less

Most of us know we own too much stuff. We feel the weight and burden of our clutter, and we tire of cleaning and managing and organizing. While excess consumption leads to bigger houses, faster cars, fancier technology, and cluttered homes, it never brings happiness. Rather, it results in a desire for more. It redirects our greatest passions to things that can never fulfill, and it distracts us from the very lives we wish we were living. But it doesn't have to be this way.

Are you overextended, over-distracted, and overwhelmed? Do you work at a breakneck pace all day, only to find that you haven’t accomplished the most important things on your agenda by the time you leave the office? The world has changed and the way we work has to change, too. Manage Your Day-to-Day will give you a toolkit for tackling the challenges of a 24/7, always-on workplace. We’ll show you how to build a rock-solid daily routine, field a constant barrage of messages, find focus amid chaos, and carve out the time you need to do the work that matters.

The User's Guide to the Human Mind: Why Our Brains Make Us Unhappy, Anxious, and Neurotic and What We Can Do About It

Your mind is not built to make you happy; it's built to help you survive. So far, it's done a great job! But in the process, it may have developed some bad habits, like avoiding new experiences or scrounging around for problems where none exist. Is it any wonder that worry, bad moods, and self-critical thoughts so often get in the way of enjoying life?

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

For decades we've been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F*ck positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let's be honest, shit is f*cked, and we have to live with it." In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn't sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is - a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is his antidote to the coddling, let's-all-feel-good mind-set that has infected modern society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.

The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

We are stuck, stymied, frustrated. But it needn't be this way. There is a formula for success that's been followed by the icons of history - from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs - a formula that let them turn obstacles into opportunities. Faced with impossible situations, they found the astounding triumphs we all seek.

Science has figured out a lot of interesting aspects of self-discipline and willpower, but most of this knowledge is buried deep inside long, boring scientific papers. If you'd like to benefit from these studies without actually reading them, this audiobook is for you. I've done the job for you and researched the most useful and viable scientific findings that will help you improve your self-discipline.

Ego Is the Enemy

"While the history books are filled with tales of obsessive visionary geniuses who remade the world in their images with sheer, almost irrational force, I've found that history is also made by individuals who fought their egos at every turn, who eschewed the spotlight, and who put their higher goals above their desire for recognition." (From the prologue)

Publisher's Summary

Focus tells us how to find the focus among all the digital distractions in our world, so that we can create, focus on what's important, and find time for quiet and contemplation.

“At the heart of this simple book lies the key to many of the struggles we face these days, from being productive and achieving our goals, to getting healthy and fit in the face of fast food and inactivity, to finding simplicity and peace amidst chaos and confusion. That key itself is simple: focus. Our ability to focus will allow us to create in ways that perhaps we haven’t in years. It’ll allow us to slow down and find peace of mind. It’ll allow us to simplify and focus on the essential things, the things that matter most.” —Leo Babauta

I loved Babauta's The Power of Less. I've listened to it three times and bought the ebook. This is a retread of it, only ironically completely unfocused. It's clearly just some blog posts strung together without much effort to make them into a focused whole. The ending features fellow bloggers reading their own "power of less" style essays, and they aren't very good. Aside from being a poor rewrite, Babauta rejects one of the key ideas in "The Power of Less," which could've been interesting but didn't seem convincing to me. (I'll leave the mystery to readers of Focus.) Anyway, I wish I hadn't gotten the book and now I'm leery of getting more by him for fear they'll also be retreads. (Zen to Done is like a first draft of The Power of Less and not recommended either.) Bottom line: Stick with The Power of Less, not this.

Very good performance. Very interesting and smart approach to human productivity. Simply and powerful advices, that can change your life and work.Book worth listening, if you haven't listen or read any books of Leo Babauta earlier. If you have read or listen somethinf earlier - you can find this book very similiar to thers (ie. "Zen to done" also available in audible).

Worth every penny. Another great book. Very concise and straight to the point. We are in the "Age of Distraction" and most are not aware of it. This book will give you back your precious and invaluable resource... Time.

Would you consider the audio edition of Focus to be better than the print version?

I've don't have the print version of Focus. This was my first audio/book by Leo Babauta. I'm willing to purchase other books by this author.

What did you like best about this story?

I've always said twitter and facebook was a huge was of time, but really needed for authors and people trying to grow their business. Leo offers solutions to the social media distraction. I also enjoyed the fact that Babauta offered solutions. Some books in this genre send too much time discussing the issue, but offer little solutions.

Which character – as performed by Fred Stella – was your favorite?

N/A

What did you learn from Focus that you would use in your daily life?

One pointer I've started using: Make a daily to do list, pick three IMPORTANT task and focus on those task first and early in the day when I have the most energy.

Because of the ethos of simplicity the book itself keeps clearly on message, and is straightforward in its approach. Some ideas are practical and others are more philosophical. Avoiding multitasking and getting back to one thing at a time done like it is the singularly most important task in your life is just one important lesson to take from this book.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

David

Edenfield, Lancs

10/16/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Enjoyed."

Currently looking into ways of making my life more simple and focussed so this was an ideal short listen to keep me motivated and on track.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Sandra Wilson

10/6/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Repetitive and Boring"

I love Leo's blog, yet this book was so repetitive. Are we all really that shallow that we spend all our waking hours glued to some form of technology and have to have a book to tell us it is better to give time to your children than to check an email while you are out.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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